Hello, ive posted before on this forum under a title of" unsure what to do" and that was a year ago when I was debating to myself on what to do about care issues … eg me returning home to Scotland to help with my mother who lives in Scotland and me living in England and anyway to cut a long story short im still in England and my mother still in Scotland but I did go back to Scotland at xmas and came across a crisis with my mother , took her to social services followed their advice and got interim care in the form of social support but had to return to England.
Its what has happened in the time from xmas until now that has got me worried, I think it is wrong and would like some advice please.
The social services said to me when I presented my mother to them to get interim social support until they did a care assessment. So I got one of the agencies on their list of approved etc and set up two hours social support per week which is on 1 day per week. This works out at £140 per month. So then fast forward to six weeks later, the care assessment gets done but is closed down because they say "that as my mother already has the social support in place she dosen’t need any ".
So im on the phone to social services saying I was only following their advice so how is it possible for them to say no support is needed as ive went ahead and put it in place and whilst im on the phone the lady said she would have assessed my mother as needing 2 hours soicial support so we argued and then the social services decide to pay for 2hrs social support. per week but not backdated to when I presented my mother , only from the assesment date.
speaking to the support worker , she thinks it it because my mothers rebate has came through meaning she would only pay a max of £6 per month for social support so the dept that does the rebates are really paying for the support and it was this that prompted the agreement from the councils social services to agree to fund the two hours .
So anyway moving on it turns out my mother is suffering from dementia receiving a diagnosis but it transpires that she is telling social work she is fine and dosent want help and when I say this to the social services that she has dementia they respond with ah yes but she has capability so we take her answers .
So this is the position , now the council will fund 2 hrs and my mother funds another 2 hrs as she now receives 2 days of 2 hrs social support , this seems to be the minimum she is needing and I just feel that the social services were underhand in the way they acted. They say the review is in a couple of months I just have to keep my fingers crossed they will increase the support then.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
They should have arranged the care from the start. Make a Subject Access Request - the posh way of wanting to see what they have on their computer about you. Then you can see what they wrote when you took mum there originally. They have 40 days to reply.
Thanks bowling bun. To tell the truth im absolutly drained by all this. i know that they should have provided the support from the instant I turned up with mum and backdated the payment from then, I raised a complaint with the c.e.o. of the council about the situation and it was only two days ago I spoke with the team leader who was adamant only 2 hrs social support and not backdated. He was loving to quote capability to me. They are quite smart by doing the bare min in so much as any challenge will take as long as the time until the next review but its handy to know about the S.A.R… The team leader said because my mother was refusing other services I.E. day care ( being taken out for the day somewhere ) and that she had capability that 1/ she makes her own decisions and 2/ unless she agrees to things they are not willing to provide extra support etc just in case she refuses on the day and that would be a waste of time and money.( i can see the logic in what he said )
Knowing about the SAR might help at the next review. for example making a SAR then and they would obviously know about the complaint to the c.e.o. might be enough pressure to get say 4 hrs social support per week. but im wondering are there any set standards of support for people with dementia or is it dependent on the social services ?
The first time i posted last year someone said if I moved in I would be constantly at her beck and call and its exactly like that. even with all the miles in between us she is always phoning up even about the smallest thing, then I try to sort it out and im drained with all the worry etc
Ill just concentrate on the next assessment I think and try to get her more support at that time
I also had the incessant phone calls from mum.
She really didn’t like me running our business related to vintage lorries, and didn’t understand that when I was writing my club magazine at home (20 sides of A4 every 3 months) I needed peace and quiet to be creative, and come hell or high water it had to be written, printed at home and posted to meet a deadline.
Finally I just put the answerphone on 24/7 and would listen to the calls regularly. I would suggest that you did this too.
In my experience SS will try anything on and only give in to the ones who know their rights and insist that it doesn’t matter what your usual practice is. This is what the law says. I suggested jokingly that if this is their usual practice then perhaps I should start a class action against them. It would be a good idea but not really my sort of thing.